Marxist Perspective on the family

Just like functionalists, marxists too have a structrual view of the family. However the difference is that marxists do not regard the nuclear family as a functionally necrssary - therefore universal - instituiton. They see the family within the framework of a capatilist society, which is based on private property, driven by profit and riddled with conflict between social classes and opposing interests. Marxists argue that the nuclear family is concerned with social control by teaching its members to submit to the capitalist class, and they emphasize the ways the family reproduces unequal relationships and works to damp down inevitable social conflict.

Engles, an early tradititional Marxist believed that the monogamous nuclear family developed as a means of passing on private property to heirs. The family coupled with monogamy…